The First Date

My first date with Jon Dean. It was on a Saturday night, April 1, 2000 in Phoenix, AZ. Earlier in the week, I was in Chicago and drove back to Arizona a few days later. We met through a personal ad I placed on Yahoo (see the June 5th entry) while I was in Chicago and then corresponded via e-mail and chat. We would chat online every night after he responded to my ad. When I got back to Phoenix on Friday we spoke for the first time. He told me that he has a slight Southern accent. It was very charming.

We arranged to meet at the Merck, a bar in the better part of Phoenix on Camelback Road the following night at 7 pm. I remember getting ready for the first date. It was a cool night for Phoenix at that time of the year and I wore my lucky rainbow-striped rugby shirt. I ran a few minutes late that evening and parked across the street from the Merck (free parking on that side). Damn, I was five minutes late! I am known for my punctuality.

Slightly out of breath, I walked into the Merck and saw a man with his back to me at the bar. I knew it was him. He turned around and I think we were both impressed. A great smile, nice build, and a pleasing face. We had a few drinks and talked about what people talk about on first dates. Afterwards, we went across the street to the bookstore at the Biltmore and discovered each other’s reading interests. He was into roses and I was partial to a Heinrich Himmler biography. However, we did share a mutual interest in fountain pens while looking through the magazine selection.

We finished the evening with some drinks at Harley’s, a quiet gay bar in downtown Phoenix. Naturally, we made plans to meet again. Like the next day.